Suicide pact by rape
victim's family
Death toll reaches four as 11-year-old boy diesHisar, April 24
The fourth member of the missing rape victim’s family that consumed poison under a suicide pact on Monday died today in the PGIMS, Rohtak. A team of the National Commission of Scheduled Castes
conducted a probe to look in to the circumstances leading to the tragedy.

Raj Kumar Chhanena, Director of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, speaks to mediapersons in Hisar
on Wednesday. Photo: Sushil Manav

Where is the victim?
Hisar, April 24
Where is Bhairi Akbarpur rape victim? The question has baffled everyone.
The victim has not surfaced even after the death of not one but four members of her family, including her mother.
This also belies police claims that the victim’s father knows about her
whereabouts. The victim’s father had said he was under severe pressure from
the police to divulge her whereabouts to enable the police to produce her in
court.

Ram Bilas Sharma, BJP state president, being presented with a garland of currency notes by Mahinder Singh, Chairperson of Best Foods, during his first visit after being the state party president in Karnal on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Ravi Kumar

Five members of a gang of vehicle lifters in police custody in Gurgaon on Wednesday.
A Tribune photo

Volunteers donated 411 units of blood at a camp organised on the eve of Manav Ekta Diwas at Nirankari Satsang Bhawan in Karnal on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Ravi Kumar

Man arrested for raping step-daughters
Gurgaon, April 24
The Gurgaon police today arrested a man for allegedly raping his step-daughters, aged seven and 14.
The incident came to light when the victim’s mother visited her cousin in Delhi and confided in her. It was then that this cousin took her to the Khyala police station in Delhi where an FIR was registered and the case was eventually transferred to the Gurgaon police.

HC allows ad hoc service benefit to teacher
Chandigarh, April 24
Shanno Devi will get benefit of the service rendered by her on ad hoc basis four decades ago.
Taking up the Hindi teacher’s case against the State of Haryana and other respondents, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asserted, “Entire service interrupted or continuous followed by confirmation is to be treated as qualifying service for pension; and the period of break is to be omitted while working out the aggregate service.”

Aided institutes’ staff seek pension for physically challenged wards
Karnal, April 24
Haunted by the spectre of dreadful plight of their physically challenged wards after their death, employees of government-aided institutions have demanded lifetime family pension for them on the analogy of family pension given to disabled wards of the government servants.

Nexus of corruption at work in tardy wheat lifting
Jind, April 24
The problems regarding the procurement and removal of the procured wheat from the grain markets in the district prevail, thanks to the presence of a nexus of corruption.
With the arrivals and procurement crossing 4.70 MT on Wednesday, the total
lifting has been around 42 per cent so far. This has resulted not only in a
glut-like situation at the mandis, but has also resulted in various other
problems, including space availability and the risk of damage to the wheat bags
lying in open.

I was never invited to CM’s rally, says Rao Inderjit
New Delhi, April 24
Congress MP from Gurgaon, Rao Inderjit Singh, has denied any efforts by the party to ‘patch-up’ differences between him and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh
Hooda. Rao Inderjit Singh refuted claims that he had been invited to a rally of the Chief Minister at Meerpur tomorrow. “I have not even received any intimation of a rally what to talk of an invite. There has been no letter, phone or even an SMS message to invite me,” he said.

Industry reels under erratic power cuts
Yamunanagar, April 24
Even as there has been no shortage of power in the state, the Yamunanagar steel and plywood industry is facing frequent power disruptions, which have made it difficult for the manufacturers to operate their units and meet the production targets.

Victim’s grandson held for Rs 6.53-lakh fraud
Kurukshetra, April 24
Saurav Ahluwalia, grandson of Bahadur Singh Ahluwalia and Santosh
Ahluwalia, turned out to be the mastermind behind withdrawing Rs 6.53 lakh fraudulently from his grandparents' bank accounts by faking signatures.

Infanticide: Baby girl’s body exhumed
Sirsa, April 24
The police exhumed the body of seven-month-old baby girl Khushi from the cremation ground at Bhawdeen village of Sirsa on Tuesday, following a complaint filed by her maternal grandfather on the suspicion of infanticide. The body was taken to the PGIMS, Rohtak, for a postmortem examination today.

Couple found dead on rail track
Hisar, April 24
Young lovers, Anil (20), a B Tech student at an Engineering College in Ludhiana and Pooja (17), who appeared in Class X examination this year, allegedly committed suicide by jumping before a train last night, preliminary investigation has revealed. The couple was in love and belonged to Neoli Khurd village of Hisar. Their bodies were recovered from the railway tracks near the village in a badly mutilated condition in the wee hours. The driver of a goods train noticed the bodies and informed the police.

Woman gets 10-day jail for U-turn on gangrape complaint
Sonepat, April 24
Additional District and Sessions Judge, Manisha Batra, has sentenced a woman to 10 day imprisonment along with Rs 500 as fine for allegedly backtracking from allegations of her gangrape levelled by her against four persons, during the hearing of the case.

Pabnawa violence: Chamar mahasabha demands arrest of culprits
Karnal, April 24
Members of the Chamar Mahasabha Haryana Pradesh today protested against the atrocities being perpetrated on Dalits by upper castes and demanded arrest of the accused named in the FIR in the brutal attack on the Dalit community in Pabnawa village. The incident forced the community members to flee.

Members of the Chamar Mahasabha Haryana Pradesh stage a rally against Pabnawa violence in Karnal on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Ravi Kumar

BJP’s demand for metro tabled in Parliament
Sonepat, April 24
The “Metro Rail Sonepat Lao” signature campaign of the BJP has met with some success after the Standing Parliamentary Committee of the Union Urban Development Ministry tabled its recommendations in the Parliament on Tuesday evening for extending the metro rail services to Sonepat and Greater
Noida.

HUDA to launch 3 sectors in Pinjore-Kalka complex
Chandigarh, April 24
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is set to launch three sectors in the Pinjore-Kalka urban complex. In the first phase, HUDA plans to come out with sectors 27,28 and 30 in the urban complex. In all, HUDA plans to develop 31sectors, including residential and commercial areas, over 476 acres along both sides of National Highway-22 between Pinjore and Kalka on the Zirakpur-Shimla road. Residential plots, multi-storeyed apartments in group housing societies (GHS) and commercial areas will be on offer in the sectors.

Woman foils kidnap bid
Gurgaon, April 24
Out to inspire thousands, a 21-year-old girl from Mewat village not only foiled the attempt of a youth to kidnap and molest her at gun point, but also managed to drag one of the molesters to police station.

Mistry offers help in housing project
Chandigarh, April 24
The chairman of Tata Group, Cyrus Pallonji
Mistry, has offered to help Haryana government in its ambitious project of constructing two lakh houses for the poor. He has also shown interest to extend cooperation in the areas of fertilizer and agriculture. Mistry had called on Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his residence here today.

BJP to decide on contesting MC poll on party symbol
Karnal, April 24
The Haryana BJP would take a final decision on contesting the elections to seven municipal corporations in Haryana on the party symbol or otherwise at a meeting of the core committee of the party in New Delhi on April 26.

Driver of car used in murder arrested
Sonepat, April 24
The district police has arrested the driver of the car used by the Chandigarh police constable Basant
in murder of the newly married Sandeep and his mother Roshni at their house in Deepalpur village on April 18, in broad
daylight. Basant also forcibly took away Sandeep’s wife Sarita with him in the car.

Teenage girl kidnapped
Rewari, April 24
A teenaged girl (17) was allegedly enticed by a youth here yesterday. The victim is a student of Government Polytechnic College,
Lisana, about 5 km from here, and is a resident of Mahavir Nagar colony here.

Two booked for rape in Sirsa
Sirsa, April 24
The police has booked a youth and his sister-in-law on a complaint of a 17-year-old girl, alleging that the accused raped her in connivance with his
bhabi.

Karamchaari sangh to observe protest day
Faridabad, April 24
The Sarva Karamchaari
Sangh, Haryana, has decided to observe May 1, the International Labour Day, as a “protest day" in the state to register its resentment against the state government for not fulfilling demands of employees.

Death toll reaches four as 11-year-old boy dies
DC orders probe; NCSC team inquires about circumstancesSushil Manav
Tribune News Service

Hisar, April 24
The fourth member of the missing rape victim’s family that consumed poison under a suicide pact on Monday died today in the PGIMS, Rohtak. A team of the National Commission of Scheduled Castes (NCSC) conducted a probe to look in to the circumstances leading to the tragedy.

Rajiv (all names changed), the 11-year-old son of Mohan, the lone survivor in the incident, breathed his last in the early hours in the PGIMS at Rohtak today taking the death toll in the tragedy to four.

Rajiv’s mother Sunita (38), a sister Sandhya (13) had died on the day the family consumed Celphos under a suicide pact, while Amit (9), the youngest member of the family died on Tuesday.

The condition of Mohan, a poor Dalit from Bhairi Akbarpur, whose eldest daughter was raped in May last year and then went missing in July, is stated to be stable. He is under severe distress. Mohan had consumed poison in the wee hours on Monday along with his wife, daughter and two sons.

Raj Kumar Chhanena, Director in the Chandigarh office of the NCSC for Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh, visited Bhairi Akbarpur village today and also met Mohan at the PGIMS last night.

Chhanena said the NCSC chairman PL Punia had sent him to the village and the PGIMS, as the Commission had taken the tragedy very seriosuly.

He said he was yet to prepare a report, but after talking to Mohan and the villagers, he had concluded that the family took this extreme step due to the cumulative effect of several factors such as abject poverty, ignominy in the village due to rape and disappearance of his eldest daughter, loss of livelihood due to frequent visits to the police stations and the courts and above all heavy pressure from the police to reveal the whereabouts of the girl so that they could produce her in court.

He said the NCSC had taken the incident very seriously and assured that justice would be provided to the victim family.

Meanwhile, senior police officers are suspicious of Mohan, who they say, has been talking normally, though all the four others, alleged to have consumed Celphos with him, died.

Refusing to comment on the same, the police plan to interrogate him after he is discharged from hospital.

Agriculture experts, who deal in pesticides, however, said if a person consumes Celphos after allowing it to remain in the open for some time, its active ingredients evaporate making it less toxic.

“The man may have consumed his share of poison in the end after ensuring that all members of his family have taken it,” agriculture expert said.

Hisar, April 24
Where is Bhairi Akbarpur rape victim? The question has baffled everyone.
The victim has not surfaced even after the death of not one but four members of her family, including her mother.

This also belies police claims that the victim’s father knows about her whereabouts. The victim’s father had said he was under severe pressure from the police to divulge her whereabouts to enable the police to produce her in court.

This also highlights the police failure to locate the victim, which instead of finding the girl, was harassing her father, driving him to take such an extreme step. The police believed that the father had reached a compromise with the family of the accused. The police also suspected that the victim’s family may have married her off and thus did not want to call her. The police also suspects that it could be a case of honour crime.

No sight of the victim so far negates the police belief that the father knew about her whereabouts.

The victim was allegedly abducted and raped by a villager Rohtash on May 15 last year and had disappeared on July 6, 2012.

Gurgaon, April 24
The Gurgaon police today arrested a man for allegedly raping his step-daughters, aged seven and 14.
The incident came to light when the victim’s mother visited her cousin in Delhi and confided in her. It was then that this cousin took her to the Khyala police station in Delhi where an FIR was registered and the case was eventually transferred to the Gurgaon police.

A case of rape under the IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act has been registered.

The accused, Sachin (26), is a labourer and according to the complaint, he had raped his elder daughter around two months ago and then repeated the crime with the younger one a few days later. The girl’s mother, who had chosen to be silent when her elder daughter was exploited, could not tolerate the same with the younger one and thus moved to her cousin for help.

“The medical examination of both girls have been conducted. The accused had allegedly raped the older girl three months ago while staying in Gurgaon. After sometime, he sexually assaulted his seven-year-old daughter. We
are interrogating him," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (west) Surender Pal Singh.

Chandigarh, April 24
Shanno Devi will get benefit of the service rendered by her on ad hoc basis four decades ago.
Taking up the Hindi teacher’s case against the State of Haryana and other respondents, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asserted, “Entire service interrupted or continuous followed by confirmation is to be treated as qualifying service for pension; and the period of break is to be omitted while working out the aggregate service.”

Allowing Shanno Devi’s petition, the High Court also directed that the service period rendered by her on ad hoc basis from February 1974 to August 1978 “would be counted towards qualifying service for pension and gratuity”. For the purpose of re-computing aggregate qualifying service for pension and gratuity, Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa gave the State two months time.

Shanno Devi was appointed as a Hindi teacher in the State Education Department on ad hoc basis vide in February 1974. She was relieved from service in August 1978 upon the joining of a regular employee. She was again hired on ad hoc basis in 1979; and her services were eventually regularised in 1980.

The judgment in her case is significant as the State and other respondents had “clearly proceeded on an erroneous premise”. Rule 4.23, contained in the Punjab Civil Services Rules, regulates moves to condone interruptions and deficiencies. It states interruption in the service between two spells can be condoned, if the service prior to interruption is not less than five years and interruption in service between two spells is not more than a year.

In the light of Rule 4.23, a view was been taken that her service could not be considered as qualifying service, as interruption between the two spells of service was more than one year.

Justice Dhindsa ruled interruption in petitioner’s service between the spell of ad hoc and permanent service was clearly not condonable, as the ad hoc service rendered by the petitioner preceding the interruption was less than five years duration and such interruption itself was more than a period of one year. But, the petitioner’s claim was not for condoning interruption in service. Rather, it was to count the ad hoc service rendered by her from 1974 to 1978.

Karnal, April 24
Haunted by the spectre of dreadful plight of their physically challenged wards after their death, employees of government-aided institutions have demanded lifetime family pension for them on the analogy of family pension given to disabled wards of the government servants.

“Treat all disabled as equal, whether they are children of the employees of government-aided institutions or not and grant them lifetime pension to live with dignity,” the employees pleaded with the government.

“God has been unkind to my daughter and so has the government,” said father of 28-year-old Silky, who is mentally retarded with 100 per cent disability. She is unmarried. The thought about what will happen to his daughter after he is dies sends shivers down the spine of Dr Subash Chander Gupta, who retired as an associate professor from Dayanad PG College,
Hisar, in February last year.

He said he had written to the Director General, Higher Education, to include the name of his disabled daughter for family pension, as is the case with the government employees. He said it would be difficult for disabled children to survive if lifetime pension was not given to them, as presently such children are entitled to family pension after the death of parents up to the age of 25 years only.

Expanding the scope of the family pension scheme, 1964, the state government had amended the Act and provided that “if the son or daughter of a government employee is suffering from any disorder or disability of mind or is physically crippled or disabled to render him or her unable to earn a living even after attaining the age of 25 years, then family pension would be payable to such wards for life subjected to certain conditions.

President of the Retired College Principals and Teachers Federation, Haryana, IJ
Bharti, said there were just a few cases (less than 10) of disabled wards among employees of government-aided institutions and the government should render all possible support to these children on humanitarian grounds.

The plight of the family of Chander Prakash Arya (70), who died on January 14 this year after undergoing treatment for months, was pathetic, as the kids are yet to be settled. The expense on his treatment was Rs 3
lakhs, but there was no support from any quarter.

Pointing out that the e-pension system implemented by the government covered only the employees retired after August 1, 2012, for the time being, while the rest would be covered in phases, the federation demanded speedy implementation of disbursement of pension to all through the e-pension system for speedy and regular disbursement of pension.

In some of the colleges, the retirees have not been paid the pension since January and even after orders of the high court in December 2012 to pay leave encashment dues to teachers of aided institutions, general secretary of the federation BR Gulati said.

Expressing anguish over the delay in disbursement of pensions and citing the HC order to pay the salary and the pension of the low paid employees before drawing the pension of senior officials, Gulati demanded that the senior citizens be paid pension on priority.

The government was also discriminating in providing medical reimbursement and other facilities to employees of government-aided private colleges, who are forced to pay through nose for expensive medical treatment and many of them are deprived of medical
facilities.

Bharti said as per the gazette notification issued on April 17, 2009, retirement benefits would be given to college teachers after the completion of 28 years of service, but there is again a glaring disparity in the date of implementation which is September 24, 2009, for government colleges and October 12, 2010, for government-aided colleges, a deferment of 13 months.

Jind, April 24
The problems regarding the procurement and removal of the procured wheat from the grain markets in the district prevail, thanks to the presence of a nexus of corruption.

With the arrivals and procurement crossing 4.70 MT on Wednesday, the total lifting has been around 42 per cent so far. This has resulted not only in a glut-like situation at the mandis, but has also resulted in various other problems, including space availability and the risk of damage to the wheat bags lying in open.

“The problem lies mainly on part of the transporter and the officials, who ought to keep a check and ensure operations smoothly, as the delay in lifting of the procured wheat was mainly due to the lack of swift action by the transporter allotted the work by the district authorities just before the start of the procurement season,” claimed a commission agent at the Jind grain market.

On condition of anonymity, he said the transport contractor discriminated between them and lifted the material of those agents who paid him extra bucks. Revealing that the bribe charged could be between Rs 2 and 4 per bag (50 kg), he alleged any complaint to the officials concerned was hardly entertained due to links of the contractors and indirect involvement of certain officials. It is claimed that some of the transport contractors prefer to shift the bags to the godowns located faraway than those located nearby, mainly due to higher fares. Blaming the nexus operating in this work, another commission agent based in Narwana town, claimed that all agencies, including the transporter, labour supplier and the market officials, tried to push the burden on the agents, as the delay might result in the loss of weight of the procured bags and any shortfall in the weight of bag (50 kg) was to be borne on the agent and to escape this situation, the agent was left with no option than to bribe the contractors. Revealing that payment to the farmers was made through the agents, the latter gets the cheque only after the procured wheat was lifted and shifted to the godown, which could take 10-15 days.

Though as per the conditions laid in the contract, the transport contractor was required to lift the produce within 72 hours, but it was delayed by six days on an average due to various factors. This, he said, was the reason that the lifting was lower than 50 per cent of the total procurement. A complaint lodged by an agent last year at Narwana against a transport contractor has failed to nail anyone so far, it is claimed. Admitting surfacing of some complaints last year, Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik said procurement and lifting operations had improved this time and claimed that the stockpile was likely to be cleared shortly, as necessary instructions had been issued to the concerned.

New Delhi, April 24
Congress MP from Gurgaon, Rao Inderjit Singh, has denied any efforts by the party to ‘patch-up’ differences between him and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh
Hooda. Rao Inderjit Singh refuted claims that he had been invited to a rally of the Chief Minister at Meerpur tomorrow. “I have not even received any intimation of a rally what to talk of an invite. There has been no letter, phone or even an SMS message to invite me,” he said.

The southern Haryana leader, who has often question Hooda’s development model and called it ‘Rohtak centric’, said claims through the media of having invited him were wrong. “The invite, if at all it is coming, has been timed to reach me after the rally has ended. This will give the CM’s team to say that I was invited and did not turn up,” Rao Inderjit Singh alleged.

Statements were published in the media saying Yadav had invited Rao for the rally. “The CM will be the chief guest and like all other Lok Sabha representatives of the district, I have invited him (Rao) with a personal letter,” Capt Ajay Yadav was quoted in the media.

The MP, who was a Minister of State for Defence in UPA-I, said, “Had the Rally organisers invited me, they would have put my picture on the hoardings which have come up in Southern Haryana.”

Politics over inviting Hooda and Rao Inderjit Singh on a common platform has boomeranged when a rally at Meerpur in September 2012 was cancelled. The matter of Hooda and Rao’s differences was in the notice of the Congress high-command in Delhi. Rao Inderjit had recently launched the Haryana Insaaf Manch, a non-political outfit.

Yamunanagar, April 24
Even as there has been no shortage of power in the state, the Yamunanagar steel and plywood industry is facing frequent power disruptions, which have made it difficult for the manufacturers to operate their units and meet the production targets.

Faced with a tough competition from cheaper imports from China coupled with an erratic power supply, the steel and plywood industry is finding itself engaged in a tough struggle for survival. According to local industrialists, the erratic power supply has almost made it impossible for them to run industries on regular basis. The problem here was being created by the outdated distribution system, which lead to frequent breakdowns.

Ved Prakash, a local industrialist said the local industry was already struggling against the ever increasing power charges, which had made it difficult for the manufacturers to run their units in profits. The industrialists were also paying fixed charges for their power connections, which ran into thousands of rupees each month. He said industrialists had to pay the fixed charges even if they did not use the power for production. Still uninterrupted power was not available for them.

Ravi Kamboj, who owns a steel utensil making unit in Jagadhri, said the manufacturers were burdened with the increased rate of power, but still they had to run their units on diesel generators, which increased the cost of power from Rs 12 to Rs 15 a unit. This affected the profits of the units. He said the Power Minister was claiming there was no shortage of power this season, but right at the onset of the summers, the industry here was facing unscheduled power cuts.

Ravinder Saini, another industrialist, said the major problem in Yamunanagar was outdated power distribution system, which resulted in frequent power outages, thus affecting the overall productivity of the local industrial units. He said there was no point in paying high charges for power if it was not made available for doing business.

Senior officials in the Power Department denied the charges. They stated power was being supplied to the local industrialists for long hours. They however, admitted that at times power had to be suspended in certain areas due to system breakdowns, but it was only a local problem.

Meanwhile, the demand for power in the state had already touched 5,206 MW a day. The net generation of power by Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) as on Wednesday was 2,794 MW as against an installed capacity of 5,300.50 MW. Sources in the HPGCL stated the state was receiving 1,424 MW of power from Adani Power’s Mundra Thermal Plant in Gujarat under a long-term purchase agreement, which had enabled the utility meet the demand.

While seven thermal units, including five at Panipat Thermal Power Plant, one at Khedar Power Plant and another at Mahatama Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project, Jhajjar, which had been shut down due to reduced demand, have not yet been revived as the utility had been able to meet the demand with the power already available though various sources.

Kurukshetra, April 24
Saurav Ahluwalia, grandson of Bahadur Singh Ahluwalia and Santosh
Ahluwalia, turned out to be the mastermind behind withdrawing Rs 6.53 lakh fraudulently from his grandparents' bank accounts by faking signatures.

Narrating the incident, district police chief Rakesh Kumar Arya said Nar Singh, bank manager of the State Bank of India, Panchayat Bhawan branch, here lodged a complaint with the police that somebody had withdrawn Rs. 6.53 lakh from two bank accounts at the branch
fraudulently.

Arya said the investigation was assigned to city SHO Malkeet Singh, who, with the help of his team, had arrested Saurav
Ahluwalia, resident of the HUDA Sector-13, Kurukshetra.

During interrogation, Saurav Ahluwalia told the police that his grandfather, Bahadur Singh
Ahluwalia, and grandmother Santosh Ahluwalia, who are residing with his uncles in Canada, are having their accounts at the State Bank of India, Panchayat Bhawan branch, here, but their cheque books were available at their residence with
him.

Saurav further told the police that he withdrew Rs 5.43 lakh from his grandfather’s account and Rs 1.10 lakh from his grandmother’s account by putting their fake signatures on two separate
cheques.

Arya said the branch manager told the police that his branch was informed by the account holders on telephone from Canada that although they were residing in Canada, someone had withdrawn the amount from their accounts. Immediately after getting the information, the branch manager informed the police.

During investigation, the cheques with fake signatures were sent to the forensic science laboratory in Madhuban for matching it with the signatures of other family members in India. Saurav turned to be the mastermind behind withdrawing Rs. 6.53 lakh fraudulently from the bank
accounts.

Saurav was produced in the court here today and remanded to police custody for a day, added
Arya.

Sirsa, April 24
The police exhumed the body of seven-month-old baby girl Khushi from the cremation ground at Bhawdeen village of Sirsa on Tuesday, following a complaint filed by her maternal grandfather on the suspicion of infanticide. The body was taken to the PGIMS, Rohtak, for a postmortem examination today.

Earlier, Khushi’s father Mandeep Singh had allegedly buried the baby on Monday night citing her death due to a brief illness.

Suspicious of his son-in-law’s conduct, Kabil Singh, a resident of Khan Mohammed in Fatehabad, approached the police.

“I had married my daughter Jyoti to Mandeep on December 12, 2011. On October 14, 2012, she gave birth to Khushi. On October 28, we received a message that Jyoti was not eating anything. We found her dead and an odour emanating from her body when we reached Bhawdeen within an hour of having received the message. Under pressure from the common relatives, I did not lodge any complaint against my son-in-law,” said Khushi’s maternal grandfather Kabil Singh.

He alleged that on Monday, he received a call from Mandeep that Khushi was indisposed and that he was in Ding village for her treatment.

After that, Mandeep’s phone was switched off. On Tuesday morning, he called to inform about Khushi’s death.

He said it took his family hardly two hours to reach Bhawdeen, but Mandeep informed them that he had already cremated the girl on Monday night.

Kabil Singh alleged that his inquiries from Ding village revealed that Mandeep never took Khushi there for her treatment.

Hisar, April 24
Young lovers, Anil (20), a B Tech student at an Engineering College in Ludhiana and Pooja (17), who appeared in Class X examination this year, allegedly committed suicide by jumping before a train last night, preliminary investigation has revealed. The couple was in love and belonged to Neoli Khurd village of Hisar. Their bodies were recovered from the railway tracks near the village in a badly mutilated condition in the wee hours. The driver of a goods train noticed the bodies and informed the police.

SHO, GRP police station, Randhir Singh, said the train told him that the bodies were already mutilated before the train driven by him crossed. He told the police that it seemed the two had been run over by some train that had passed from there the previous night.

Anil’s family members told the police that Anil had come home for some days and had gone to the fields last night with a tractor trolley at 10 pm to harvest wheat.

They said they found the tractor-trolley in the fields but there was no trace of Anil throughout the night. They tried reaching him on his cell phone, but it was switched off.

Pooja’s family members said she was found missing at midnight.

Anil’s family denied any affair between the two.

However, GRP sources said preliminary investigations have confirmed that the two were in love for the past five to seven months, and their family members were opposed to their relationship. Randhir Singh said prima facie, the case appeared to be of suicide.

Sonepat, April 24
Additional District and Sessions Judge, Manisha Batra, has sentenced a woman to 10 day imprisonment along with Rs 500 as fine for allegedly backtracking from allegations of her gangrape levelled by her against four persons, during the hearing of the case.

The 19-year-old newly married woman of Banwasa village of Gohana had alleged she was abducted in a car on September 28 from a level crossing at Gohana by four youths, gangraped and then released on October 2.

On the basis of her complaint Sunil and Sanjay of Khandrai, Anil of Ahmedpur Majra village and Sarvan of Hadtari in Panipat were arrested. The woman had got married to Sunil of Adiana village in Panipat three months before the incident.

She had lodged a complaint with the police alleging that she was taken to the fields of a village in Panipat and raped for four to five days. She had alleged she was brought back to
Gohana.

Karnal, April 24
Members of the Chamar Mahasabha Haryana Pradesh today protested against the atrocities being perpetrated on Dalits by upper castes and demanded arrest of the accused named in the FIR in the brutal attack on the Dalit community in Pabnawa village. The incident forced the community members to flee.

President of the mahasabha Harpal Chandel said the attack was the consequence of marriage of Suryakant, who belonged to the Chamar community, with Meena of an upper caste community. Members of the upper caste felt offended and insulted by the act and resorted to attacks on Dalit’s houses.

Seeking justice for the victim of caste violence, Chandel said the SHO Dhand should be terminated for negligence on duty and alleged that he was aware of the whole situation but did not take any preventive and precautionary measures to protect the
Dalits.

Lamenting that a large number of community members were engaged in menial jobs, the mahasabha demanded immediate steps for giving jobs to the victims, besides ensuring their rehabilitation and security.

They said the victims used to collect wheat for the year during this season, but reeling under the threat of more attacks, the community members were not able to work and the government should pay a compensation of Rs 3 lakh to all victims for sustenance and Rs 10 lakh to the injured persons.

Sonepat, April 24
The “Metro Rail Sonepat Lao” signature campaign of the BJP has met with some success after the Standing Parliamentary Committee of the Union Urban Development Ministry tabled its recommendations in the Parliament on Tuesday evening for extending the metro rail services to Sonepat and Greater
Noida.

Distributing the copies of the recommendations among the mediapersons here today, party’s MLA Kavita Jain and state
vice-president Rajiv Jain said the party had launched a signature campaign
for the Sonepat metro railway station on January 1, 2013, with a target of
collecting one lakh signatures in support of its demand.

“We also handed over a memorandum of this demand to the chairman of the committee, Sharad Yadav, on January 22. The demand was also raised in the Haryana Assembly session,” they added.

The BJP leaders said
they would go to Delhi to thank Sharad Yadav and would also meet the Union Urban Development
Minister, Kamal Nath, with the recommendations of the committee.

The committee in its recommendations has suggested that as the Rapid Transit System Corridor would take a long time, the ministry should concentrate on metro rail service from Delhi to Sonepat
and Greater Noida, they explained.

Chandigarh, April 24
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is set to launch three sectors in the Pinjore-Kalka urban complex. In the first phase, HUDA plans to come out with sectors 27,28 and 30 in the urban complex. In all, HUDA plans to develop 31sectors, including residential and commercial areas, over 476 acres along both sides of National Highway-22 between Pinjore and Kalka on the Zirakpur-Shimla road. Residential plots, multi-storeyed apartments in group housing societies (GHS) and commercial areas will be on offer in the sectors.

"The layout plans of the three sectors are ready and we are prepared to launch the sectors when we get a nod from the state government," a senior officer told The Tribune.

Earlier, the urban complex had run into rough weather with the Punjab and Haryana High Court granting stay on the project on April 19, 2012, following an application filed by farmers contending that their land was forcibly acquired by the HUDA. However, on December 12 last year, the Supreme Court vacated the stay, paving the way for the launch of the HUDA sectors in the township.

Urbanisation

HUDA plots and GHS to give stiff competition to private builders.

Infrastructural facilities to be launched simultaneously in the
project.

Gurgaon, April 24
Out to inspire thousands, a 21-year-old girl from Mewat village not only foiled the attempt of a youth to kidnap and molest her at gun point, but also managed to drag one of the molesters to police station.

The incident took place in Khori village of the Tawdu block when the victim was returning home with her mother and younger sister.

Two youth reportedly came on a bike and started passing lewd comments. The situation soon became intolerable.

They tried to pull her on their bike, but the victim refused to give in. Enraged by her resistance, the boys took out a gun and threatened her to 'cooperate' with them. One of them, meanwhile, made calls to a youth to come and help control the girl. Then they hit the girl on head with the gun and she raised an alarm, drawing attention of passerby. When the boys saw people coming, they tried to escape. However, the victim, profusely bleeding, caught one of the accused and pulled him down the vehicle. She then dragged him all the way to the nearby police station where a case was registered.
— TNS

Chandigarh, April 24
The chairman of Tata Group, Cyrus Pallonji
Mistry, has offered to help Haryana government in its ambitious project of constructing two lakh houses for the poor. He has also shown interest to extend cooperation in the areas of fertilizer and agriculture. Mistry had called on Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his residence here today.

The Chief Minister apprised Mistry that providing affordable housing to the weaker sections of the society is one of the major priorities of the government. The housing scheme known as “Priyadarshini
AwaasYojna” aims at facilitating housing in rural areas to the eligible families under “Indira Awaas
Yojna” and other poor families, including those who have been allotted 100 sq yards plots and have no house or have a kutcha house, by providing them financial assistance.

Initially, two lakh families are to be covered in the project span of two financial years of 2013-14 and 2014-15.

The Chief Minister also informed Tata chairman about the significant achievements made by Haryana in various fields of development.

Karnal, April 24
The Haryana BJP would take a final decision on contesting the elections to seven municipal corporations in Haryana on the party symbol or otherwise at a meeting of the core committee of the party in New Delhi on April 26.

Stating this here today, the state BJP president Ram Vilas Sharma said
a two-member committee is talking to workers in different parts of the state
to elicit their views and gauge their mood on the issue. Addressing a public meeting at Sector 13 here today, Sharma said
corruption has become synonym for Congress and people are looking for suitable alternative, which only the BJP-HJC alliance can provide.

Concerned over the increase in atrocities against women and Dalits in the state, the BJP chief said the party would submit a memorandum to the President, apprising him of the ground realities prevailing in the state and seek
his intervention in ensuring safety and security of the weaker sections and women. Meanwhile, a large number of persons joined the BJP on the
occasion.

Sharma was given a rousing welcome on his first visit to Karnal after his appointment as the state party chief. He was garlanded with currency notes.

Sonepat, April 24
The district police has arrested the driver of the car used by the Chandigarh police constable Basant
in murder of the newly married Sandeep and his mother Roshni at their house in Deepalpur village on April 18, in broad
daylight. Basant also forcibly took away Sandeep’s wife Sarita with him in the car.

Sarita was reported to be in love with Basant before her marriage with
Sandeep.

According spokesman for the police, the driver of the car Ram Kumar, a resident of Saha in Ambala
district, was presently residing at Nangla Mohalla in Mani Majra.

He was driving the car before and after the murder. Kumar handed over the car on the same day
to Basant at a place near Meerut after committing the crime, the spokesman said.

The police has announced a reward of Rs one lakh on Basant’s arrest. Four police teams have been constituted for arresting Basant and recovering the girl from his possession.

Rewari, April 24
A teenaged girl (17) was allegedly enticed by a youth here yesterday. The victim is a student of Government Polytechnic College,
Lisana, about 5 km from here, and is a resident of Mahavir Nagar colony here.

Her father initially ascertained from the college authorities that his daughter, who had left home for the college in the morning, had not attended her classes yesterday.

Subsequently, when he learnt from his neighbours that the
accussed, Jitender, was also missing, he filed a complaint following which the police registered a case of kidnapping against
Jitender.

Faridabad, April 24
The Sarva Karamchaari
Sangh, Haryana, has decided to observe May 1, the International Labour Day, as a “protest day" in the state to register its resentment against the state government for not fulfilling demands of employees.

State vice-president of the sangh Naresh Kumar Shastri said here today the employees would intensify their agitation in the state from May 1. “Geherao” of Haryana Assembly during its next session will be part of the agitation, he added.